Where is our team at at the moment?

[Tucker]

We had literally ONE set to go for it, and then did. WTF were you watching mate?

We had ages to set up for that play whilst waiting for the penalty goal to be kicked.
I was watching a confused bunch of headless chickens in that last set.
What were you watching?

 

[TieDye]

We had ages to set up for that play whilst waiting for the penalty goal to be kicked.
I was watching a confused bunch of headless chickens in that last set.
What were you watching?

Yeah, bad Bollywood actors for mine. Simpkin shat the bed to start the game which was on us

 

[jadtiger]

We had ages to set up for that play whilst waiting for the penalty goal to be kicked.
I was watching a confused bunch of headless chickens in that last set.
What were you watching?

That last play on friday was the perfect example on why we are in the competition cellar even though we have a reasonable team,about 20 seconds on the clock to either kick a FG to force extra time or set up a try.Not only did we do neither but we never looked like doing it.The complete lack of organisation in the opposition's red zone is deplorable.

 

[Tucker]

That last play on friday was the perfect example on why we are in the competition cellar even though we have a reasonable team,about 20 seconds on the clock to either kick a FG to force extra time or set up a try.Not only did we do neither but we never looked like doing it.The complete lack of organisation in the opposition's red zone is deplorable.

Even the commentators were screaming at them to do something. We have too much experience in Klemmer, Api, Bateman and Brooks … even Noffa to do that.

 

[Halbrowne61]

That last play on friday was the perfect example on why we are in the competition cellar even though we have a reasonable team,about 20 seconds on the clock to either kick a FG to force extra time or set up a try.Not only did we do neither but we never looked like doing it.The complete lack of organisation in the opposition's red zone is deplorable.

Run toward the centre , set up the field goal, and kick it. Not run wide hoping to catch them unawares . Low percentage play which we seem to have excelled at for many seasons.
Stay in the bloody game as long as you can !!

 

[crazycat]

I think the general feeling among the supporter base, pundits and fans of other clubs was that our performance against the Cowboys had been been brewing for about a month now.

Would be interesting to get some thoughts and feelings moving forward.

My big takeaways were

- Luke Brooks played to the top of his potential. He doesn’t often do this but when he does he deserves the plaudits. He could play 70% as good as he played against the Cowboys each week and I think we’d be a fair chance of making the 8. A lot of his play looked like it was confidence based given how eyes/heads up it was. Have we got the message right? Can he replicate it moving forward?

- Do we finally have a top 8 pack by league standards. We rate it as fans - is it there objectively? Its clear from the pre and post game comments from the Cowboys that they took us very seriously. I haven’t heard people talk about a Wests Tigers pack like that for a long time

- Toa, Bula, Tupou - is this the nucleus of our backline for the next 5 years? Where do Brooks, Wakeham and Nofa fit in? If they play cohesively like they did on the weekend are they a potential top 8 (7th/8th spot maximum) backline?

- Togetherness - these players are playing for each other. It is obvious in the broadcast. What can we do for the rest of the season?

- Specifics on players - what are we loving in individual players in the way we’ve played over the last month? My two special mentions - David Klemmer - has been immense. Taking tough carries, making effective tackles, leaving it all out there. Alex Twal - pushing up on the ruck with leg speed! He looks a transformed player. What are we loving in other players?

Would be great to get everyone’s thoughts and opinions. This is the best start to a week I’ve had in years.

My take:

After seeing LB fail with several half pairs, Benji, Reynolds, Mbye... How come he is succeeding now?

Do we have a top 8 pack?
Yea. Paps, Klemmer, Pole, Stef, Api, Bateman...
Seriously that is some huge names there. We have juniors coming up who look the goods aswell. Our biggest problem is performance DROP! Packer, Matalino, Tamou. We should have gotten way more out of them then we did.

Even when we were loosing games, we were dominant. Canberra would have walked over us in the past.

One major difference with our current pack is there is no "leader". Both Tamou and Packer had too much to handle. Klemmer and Bateman seem to allow for others to focus on their game more. We should never have a single Pack leader again.

"- Toa, Bula, Tupou - is this the nucleus of our backline for the next 5 years?"
No. Naden is the person we need to foster, either at wing or Center. We have a defense problem and Naden is one of our few backs who can handle that. Toa gives us a problem. He was wanting to play center for ages. We can fit him there, but he lacks defensive muscle. Toa+Naden may work on one side.

"Where do Brooks, Wakeham and Nofa fit in?"
What's wrong with a Chad Townsend or Mead style half? aka someone who can combine and just do "ok" in the halves. I think Wakeham is that kind of player, the Dunlop vollies half and quite frankly that's exactly what we need.

Nofa will be the winger who runs down the tryline - defense has improved. if he slacks off again, we drop him. no issues.
Brooks, as long as he and Wakeham can keep being stable. Keep him.

No more changes to the halves now that things are working.
Api + Brooks/Wakeham + Bula are our stablility.
Origin showed us how it was won by the Wing/Center combinations offensively and defensively. That is exactly what we need. I want to see Naden come back and see how he acts in this new playing group.

Sheens is going to be looking for a gamebreaker, a gun. Shulster, I don't want him on attitude. Yet he could go in at Lock or off the bench and within a good playing structure make a dent/make an impact. Strong defense combined with surprising attack will let us win games.

 

[Halbrowne61]

When we got that penalty it was four up for a field goal. That’s my biggest criticism of Luke Brooks, has the skills but lacks the smarts.

Absolutely correct but let’s not start talking about Brooks smarts again !
That topic has been filed.

 

[Halbrowne61]

My take:

After seeing LB fail with several half pairs, Benji, Reynolds, Mbye... How come he is succeeding now?

Do we have a top 8 pack?
Yea. Paps, Klemmer, Pole, Stef, Api, Bateman...
Seriously that is some huge names there. We have juniors coming up who look the goods aswell. Our biggest problem is performance DROP! Packer, Matalino, Tamou. We should have gotten way more out of them then we did.

Even when we were loosing games, we were dominant. Canberra would have walked over us in the past.

One major difference with our current pack is there is no "leader". Both Tamou and Packer had too much to handle. Klemmer and Bateman seem to allow for others to focus on their game more. We should never have a single Pack leader again.

"- Toa, Bula, Tupou - is this the nucleus of our backline for the next 5 years?"
No. Naden is the person we need to foster, either at wing or Center. We have a defense problem and Naden is one of our few backs who can handle that. Toa gives us a problem. He was wanting to play center for ages. We can fit him there, but he lacks defensive muscle. Toa+Naden may work on one side.

"Where do Brooks, Wakeham and Nofa fit in?"
What's wrong with a Chad Townsend or Mead style half? aka someone who can combine and just do "ok" in the halves. I think Wakeham is that kind of player, the Dunlop vollies half and quite frankly that's exactly what we need.

Nofa will be the winger who runs down the tryline - defense has improved. if he slacks off again, we drop him. no issues.
Brooks, as long as he and Wakeham can keep being stable. Keep him.

No more changes to the halves now that things are working.
Api + Brooks/Wakeham + Bula are our stablility.
Origin showed us how it was won by the Wing/Center combinations offensively and defensively. That is exactly what we need. I want to see Naden come back and see how he acts in this new playing group.

Sheens is going to be looking for a gamebreaker, a gun. Shulster, I don't want him on attitude. Yet he could go in at Lock or off the bench and within a good playing structure make a dent/make an impact. Strong defense combined with surprising attack will let us win games.

Lots of interesting opinion there CC, some of which I agree with and some I don’t.
My main comment pertains to Schuster and how unlikely it would be if a) we actually get him and b) getting him to play 13.
He sees himself as a 6 at Manly and doubt that would change if he came here. He’s not big on getting too dirty in the pigs, imo likes to be seen as the big kahuna with the soft hands.

 

[BZN]

Run toward the centre , set up the field goal, and kick it. Not run wide hoping to catch them unawares . Low percentage play which we seem to have excelled at for many seasons.
Stay in the bloody game as long as you can !!

Yep...they were a disorganised rabble, but I think they felt they could score and Win the game rather than kick a field goal which would only have taken the game to golden point with a chance of Us then losing.

 

[Stevec]

So much negative talk ? This is my take -
Rounds 1-7
For first 7 rounds we were a terrible attacking team lacking confidence and cohesion although defence had improved over the horrors at the end of last year . In case anyone forgot Last game Raiders were up 42-0 at halftime at LO and Roosters scoring 72 pts 3rd last game .However climbing from those depths is nothing to be proud of .
Our Attack was clunky Brooks was trying to run the ball a lot but was ineffective
We had a 20min piece of brilliance 2nd half vs Dogs but that was it !
What also happened in those rounds was players being dropped and promoted and the deck chairs shuffled every week .
Well that didn't work
Rounds 8-14
We got our act together Brooks and Wakeham started gelling ,Bula came on board ,Toa started getting better and better ,Bateman started showing class .Nofa was back to real effort junior was showing real speed and the pack was solid led by Steph and Klemm
Api was the conductor and showed his class
We started having 90% completions beat Panthers ,Dragons and produced the most dazzling performance against the Cowboys in our history
We lost to Souths with the Cody/Latrell show on fire but conceded only 3 tries with 2 in last 10mins .Now we've had an unlucky loss to a Raiders team who have been in great form for about 6-7 weeks
What happened during these rounds was player changes kept to a minimum and unlike the first 7 rounds are putting the same team on the field each week .
Well that seems to be working but was unhappy with the drop in completion rate vs Raiders .When a team has a tactic to lie all over us and slow our play the ball then Tim &Co need to come up with strategy to counter this
We are getting there - patience !

 

[diedpretty]

Because I watched the game.
Something you should try other than bawling your eyes out over the refs. Loser.

Lol - the only one bawling his eyes out is you - haven't stopped whining about what a crap side we are - maybe you should become a panthers bandwaggoning - might change your negative attitude.

 

[hybrid_tiger]

We are 16th - that's where we are at.

 

[diedpretty]

Run toward the centre , set up the field goal, and kick it. Not run wide hoping to catch them unawares . Low percentage play which we seem to have excelled at for many seasons.
Stay in the bloody game as long as you can !!

And yet when Pole had the ball and was moving to the right we had a 3 on 2 overlap - Nofo was screaming for the ball and Pole turned back and ran to the middle. That play was the one that ruined any chance to set properly for a field goal - Pole either had to continue to the right and put the ball through the hands or just cart straight up the middle to get an easier shot at FG. He did neither and in doing so also chewed up the clock. He is a good player but that was just panic caused by inexperience.

 

[Tucker]

Lol - the only one bawling his eyes out is you - haven't stopped whining about what a crap side we are - maybe you should become a panthers bandwaggoning - might change your negative attitude.

You are too old to carry on like a child. Grow up FFS. 😒

 

[weststigers]

We are 16th - that's where we are at.

Tough season to swallow. 5 games lost by 6 points or less.

Defence is certainly better. Go forward is certainly better. Attack wasn’t good for the first 7 matches.

We aren’t far off.

 

[Kelce68]

Yes this is true, however that’s done and there’s nothing we can do about it.
What can be done is improving our conversion rates. We had enough chances to win that game early on but couldn’t get a try. The coaching staff need to dig down into that. It is something they can control and fix moving forward.

I'm still burning from Friday night's loss, but this is a very, very good take.

It's not the easiest thing to do, focussing on only what you can control, but will lead to far more positive outcomes in the long run.

 

[InBenjiWeTrust]

And yet when Pole had the ball and was moving to the right we had a 3 on 2 overlap - Nofo was screaming for the ball and Pole turned back and ran to the middle. That play was the one that ruined any chance to set properly for a field goal - Pole either had to continue to the right and put the ball through the hands or just cart straight up the middle to get an easier shot at FG. He did neither and in doing so also chewed up the clock. He is a good player but that was just panic caused by inexperience.

But look at his impact, no other WT player had that impact!
Also, we have to take into account that he become the first grader only this year, and that he is 20 years old!
We have to give him a break, as he is certainly one of the best young forwards in the NRL.👏🐅💪

 

[liltiger]

Even the commentators were screaming at them to do something. We have too much experience in Klemmer, Api, Bateman and Brooks … even Noffa to do that.

We needed Api or Brooks to step up and direct play to build up to it and neither did unfortunately. I single them out because they are our 2 most senior spine players, you would expect your halfback to organise it but Brooks didn't so thought Api might fill the void but never did.

 

[earl]

But look at his impact, no other WT player had that impact!
Also, we have to take into account that he become the first grader only this year, and that he is 20 years old!
We have to give him a break, as he is certainly one of the best young forwards in the NRL.👏🐅💪

He turned 21 when he played Canberra but the key point is no other WT player had that impact. I haven't seen a prop play to that standard for our club ever. I could be wrong but I stated this in another thread and no one crucified me.

He is the guy we need to be building our pack around. He is looking to be a special player.

 

[earl]

We needed Api or Brooks to step up and direct play to build up to it and neither did unfortunately. I single them out because they are our 2 most senior spine players, you would expect your halfback to organise it but Brooks didn't so thought Api might fill the void but never did.

Api was poor. He just kept taking the wrong option. Brooks was running around trying to get the ball. When he kicked the field goal with 5 minutes to go he had to go looking for it and he did it. He tried to do it again as well. I don't blame Brooks at all for the poor execution.

I was thinking you can't resign Brooks if Api is going to go away from him like that but after calming down I think it's a coaching issue.